


Live and Learn and Never Forget

by Astrarian



Series: Writer's Month, August 2020 [17]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Gen, Minor Chakotay/Seven of Nine, Post-Canon, Writer's Month 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25963768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astrarian/pseuds/Astrarian
Summary: Kathryn Janeway visits Chakotay, Seven of Nine and Icheb after their return to Earth.(Writer's month 2020 - Day 17: cooking)
Series: Writer's Month, August 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861909
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Writer's Month 2020





	Live and Learn and Never Forget

Kathryn sets the transporter coordinates such that she’ll have a three-minute walk before arriving at Seven and Chakotay’s residence. She still has a couple of minutes to fill before she needs to leave, in order to arrive precisely on time—punctuality isn’t something she ever found easy to leave behind. After seven years on duty, no amount of compulsory shore leave can kick the habit. 

She runs her hands through her hair and spins to look out of the window, across Indiana’s beautiful fields, glowing in the late afternoon sunlight. It’s not the first time she’s found herself restlessly studying this view, and when she catches sight of her reflection in the glass, it once again feels extremely reminiscent of her ready room.

She quickly turns away, to the transporter. “Computer, white wine. Something to accompany fish.”

The computer provides her with a selection and by the time she’s picked one, it’s time for her to leave. She collects the chilled bottle from the replicator and transports to Ohio. The weather one state over is slightly cooler, which proves to be a blessing, as Kathryn realises she’s nervous at the bottom of the garden that leads to the house.

Chakotay is staying with family, but it isn’t the prospect of potentially meeting his mother and his sister after the meal that unnerves her. Although Seven and Chakotay are undoubtedly still the people she’s closest to on this planet, she’s no longer their Captain. Nearly all of the external forces that maintained the space between them are gone, because she could use the chain of command to distance herself from their relationship before. Now, she has to confront her feelings about it, and she already knows she doesn’t want to indulge those feelings.

But it’s the only way to move forward. Besides, she can hardly back out when she’s already got a hand on the gate.

She walks towards the house, up a tidy path framed with flowers. Their fragrance, and the homely smell of cooking food, drifts through the air, and she remembers the way that the smell of food lingered in Voyager’s mess hall.

Chakotay opens the door before she needs to knock. He smiles at her, gently, like always, but when he greets her, it’s with, “Kathryn, it’s wonderful to see you.”

“And you,” she returns. Her smile is genuine. So is her stiffness when he leans down and presses a dry kiss to her cheek.

He invites her in. The smell of food is all the more enticing inside, and she follows her nose and the sounds of chatter into the large kitchen. Seven and Icheb are standing at a large cooking console. Seven’s hands are clasped behind her back and her feet are planted hip-width apart in her typical manner, but she’s wearing her hair loose, and a small smile accompanies her arched eyebrow as she observes Icheb’s stirring technique.

“Captain!” Icheb says brightly. He puts the stirring utensil down and steps away from the hob to stand to attention. Seven immediately takes up the utensil again.

Though she’s not Icheb’s superior officer at this point, she isn’t wholly comfortable with him calling her by her given name, so she doesn’t comment on the title. “At ease, Icheb,” she answers, smiling. “Hello, Seven,” she adds.

“Captain,” Seven replies, turning her smile to Kathryn.

Kathryn thinks about correcting her. It also crosses her mind to kiss Seven’s cheek. She does neither, reminding herself that one way of not being the captain is to relinquish some of the control over how they relate to her.

“Hard at work, I see,” she says. “It smells wonderful.”

“I’ve been learning to cook over the past months, under Chakotay and Seven’s tutelage,” Icheb says.

“We have both been learning,” Seven corrects. “Though my knowledge was more advanced in the beginning than Icheb’s.”

“Oh?” Kathryn says lightly. Seven’s statement means she must have been learning to cook on Voyager. Kathryn had no knowledge of that. “I see. And how have you been finding it?” she asks Icheb.

“It can be rewarding. However, I admit I prefer the efficiency of a replicator.”

Kathryn laughs. “I must admit, I agree. I’ve never liked cooking.”

“I recall,” Chakotay says with a laugh, coming into the kitchen behind Kathryn. She recalls as well: those loaded weeks circling around him on New Earth, six years ago. Another life in almost every way, except that that planet left its mark on her. And so did Chakotay. 

She’s altogether too aware of Chakotay’s proximity. Of the way that Seven’s gaze flickers away from her to him. Kathryn continues the idle small talk with relative ease, however.

“Lucky for me,” she says. “Not only do I not like it, but I’m not much good at it, either.”

“You could learn,” Icheb says earnestly.

“It’s fair to say that I have the time.” She lacks the interest, though, so she raises a hand in surrender, and the other as well, presenting the wine, adding, “I’m happy to leave it to you experts right now, however.”

“I would not call our meal expertise,” Seven comments.

“No, we’re hardly experts,” Chakotay agrees, taking the wine from her hand and crossing the room to stand at Seven’s side. He looks into the pans. “But we get by.”

He and Seven share a glance over the hob. Even in brief it’s intimate. Kathryn feels a pang of emotion in her chest—fondness, loss, envy. Likely all three, and more undetermined emotions as well. 

Chakotay moves to locate a bottle opener for the wine, which gives an opening for Kathryn to explicitly say, “It’s so good to see you all.”

This, at the heart of it all, is absolutely true, in spite of the discomforting mixture of feelings that bubble above. Kathryn will endure them willingly to get to whatever their next stop is. She needs a new destination to structure her life around, and it may as well include acceptance.

Icheb begins to nod eagerly. Seven’s eyes slide from Chakotay to Kathryn.

“It is good to see you as well,” Seven says.

“Would you like to help me prepare our appetiser?” Icheb asks.

Kathryn smiles again. “Of course, Icheb. Lead on.”


End file.
